Artists’ Statement

As a child, I wanted to be either a barroom dancer or the beautiful lady of the circus. Both wishes have come true as part of the artist’s vocation.

I draw very much like I did in my childhood. Beginning each project is full of nervous excitement, like preparing for a big party. The quality and order of the equipment is of great importance. I start the drawing a little below the middle point of the paper. Usually I have in mind one visual theme, which will lead, in free association, to other themes. If I start with a birthday cake, the last thing that appears on the page might be an igloo.

My personal image bank has increased since my earliest years. Verbal themes appear in my work as fixed symbols, even as signs. Visual themes live in the work more variously. Some can fall into oblivion for a long time, and then reemerge in new, surprising contexts.

Like memory, the image bank operates randomly. The unconscious doesn’t evaluate themes or their origins; themes can emerge as much from music as newspaper stories. Often drawn from books and films, metaphors can be ready ideas for work, such as the idea of building an entire village. Art is a form of thinking. Chaotic thoughts and themes are given order through drawing. A finished artwork is a portrait of the thought process.

With the passing of time, some of my drawings and paintings have developed into moving images: animations and three-dimensional spaces, installations. Different media allow novel perspectives and activate the senses in new ways. One can walk in and around the space of an installation, while animations include time and sound as their elements. I have often collaborated with musicians, dancers, and animators. Such collaborations enable surprise, shock, and learning.

I strongly believe that art can mediate feelings regardless of time and space. This belief issues from childhood experiences. Art that one is not alone with one’s feelings and fears. This is one reason why I’m serious about my art. It’s also important to me that an artist can be simultaneously a child and an adult.